Josh Penry and Tom Tancredo showed their support for Republican candidate for governor, Scott McInnis at a press conference at RK Mechanical, Inc. in Denver, Colo. Monday 11/23/09. McInnis was shown support from former Governor Bill Owens and former Rep. Tom Tancredo.

Politicians dream of the kind of press that gubernatorial candidate Josh Penrygarnered in recent months.

Fox News reported Penry was ready to lead a national comeback of the Republican Party. The Washington Post surmised that the young state Senate minority leader might be the best hope to lay the new foundation for the GOP.

Then Penry dropped out, paving the way for his one-time boss, former U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis, to easily capture the GOP nomination.

Penry says it was a personal decision aimed at making sure Republicans unseat Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter in 2010 and spend their money reclaiming offices lost in the last three election cycles. He then reinforced the point by appearing at a unity rally to back McInnis and a new state GOP platform.

But in an extended interview last week shortly after that rally, Penry made clear that he would have preferred to see McInnis drop out instead and that he did so only reluctantly.

“At some point somebody’s got to be the adult and say, ‘I’m going to step back and do what’s right for the cause,’ ” Penry said. “Ironically, it was the 33-year-old who made the decision.”

THE COMPLETE Q&A WITH PENRY

Q: You’ve mentioned a number of times that Bill Ritter may not be a great governor, but he’s a great guy. You don’t describe Scott McInnis as a great guy. How do you all of a sudden say to your supporters, “Vote for him”?

A: I have said it a thousand times, one of Bill Ritter’s biggest assets is that he is a likeable guy, a good guy. He demonstrates humanity. That is part of what Scott has got to accomplish in the coming days and months.

But ultimately we’re not electing the class president, the guy we’d like to sit next to in school. We’re electing the person who makes tough decisions to move the state forward. Bill Ritter has not been that person, although I’d love to sit next to him in class.

Scott and I have banged heads a couple of times. Our history is by now well-known. He was a mentor, but we’ve also been in pretty fierce competition. I call them like I see them.

Q: Is this the first fight you’ve ever backed down from?

A: It was a tactical retreat, and I don’t do that very often. And your question ticks me off. (Laughs, then gets serious.)

The assumption is I pushed the gas pedal too hard, but I always have. I ran for the state House when I was 28. I won. I was 30 when I ran for the Senate and took on a popular former legislator — who happened to be Scott’s brother-in-law. I won. But in this case it made sense to tap the brake.

Q: Why isn’t Scott McInnis the one dropping out?

A: Well, that would have been my preference, but it’s the same loggerhead scenario that brought us divisive, expensive, time-consuming primaries in the last four to six years. At some point somebody’s got to be the adult and say, “I’m going to step back and do what’s right for the cause.” Ironically, it was the 33-year-old who made the decision.

Q: People are going to read what you just said and say, “That’s exactly why I backed Josh Penry for governor because he would make the right decision.”

A: As I’ve told many people who told me they were disappointed in my decision, no one is more disappointed than I am. Do I think I was the best guy for the job? I do. Do I think Scott will be head and shoulders, far and away better than Bill Ritter? No question.

Q: You said you were extremely candid in your meetings with Scott. What did you say?

A: That he has to shake the impression that it’s his, that he has to go out and hustle for it and earn it. And he will. He’s doing that already.

I pushed him hard to get going on the issues. I said if you want to beat Bill Ritter, you’ve got to be a guy who’s about an agenda and about the issues.

And if Scott wins this thing, which I believe he will, we don’t need a retro party in the statehouse. I don’t want to dust up all the old war horses who are going with the same solutions to the same problems we’ve been facing for 20 years. There are a lot of those people who play an important role, but I have strongly encouraged him to embrace new faces to shake up the status quo in government and in our party.

Q: Someone did a great job of whispering in (former U.S. Rep.) Tom Tancredo’s ear, urging him not to run after you dropped out. Was it you? Party chairman Dick Wadhams? Former Gov. Bill Owens? McInnis? All of you? Some of you?

A: I can’t speak for everyone, but I had breakfast with Tom on Nov. 11, two days after word leaked that I was dropping out. I aggressively argued that people are free to run if they want, but if we run and we spend $6 to $10 million combined in a primary, that’s several millions of dollars that won’t be spent unseating state Treasurer Cary Kennedy or taking back the state legislature.

When we retake the governorship and other offices, I think a lot of these disappointed supporters will say, “He made the right call.”

Q: Speaking of retro, here we are talking about McInnis, Tancredo, Owens and Wadhams. It feels a little like 1998 here.

A: Look at our ticket and the vibrancy and the freshness. Look at Cory Gardner and Ryan Frazier for Congress and J.J. Ament for treasurer. We’re an alive and well and hip party. As I told Scott, you can’t be a 33-year-old candidate for governor, but you can embrace my supporters, the type of supporters who bring a new energy.

Q: Do you think Scott realizes the gift that was handed to him? The cliché lead here is “Christmas came early for Scott McInnis.”

A: He does. No question in my mind. Scott in these last two weeks has shown an openness and a genuine humility. Anyone at these meetings can tell you that.

The left-wing blogs and objective observers are saying the Republicans’ chances of taking back the governorship and regaining other ground we lost just increased by orders of magnitude.

Q: Orders of magnitude? O-r-d-e-r-s? What does that mean?

A: (Laughing) Say it increased by a lot.

Q: Those same left-wing bloggers keep reporting you were pushed out. There’s talk that some high-roller donor backing McInnis approached you or your people and threatened to spend a fortune attacking you.

A: Those bloggers are also sitting in their underwear in their grandmothers’ basements. They’re making stuff up out of thin air.

I wasn’t pushed out. No one approached me. I made a shrewd decision based on the realities around me.

Scott has some significant advantages that I recognize, financial and otherwise. He was in Congress for 12 years. He has a bunch of third-party money backing him. The Republican Party historically nominates people who have been down this road before. The insurgent newcomer rarely wins it. I’m not whining about it, but it’s a reality.

Q:You knew all this when you ran.

A:I knew the challenges coming in and thought there was a path to victory. At the end, we decided that the better fight would be to pursue a broader victory for Republicans in all these other races.

Q: When you say you’ll have another shot, that you can run again, well if Ritter were to win re-election your chance would come along four years sooner. There’d be an open governor’s race in 2014.

A: You’re right. You don’t miss anything.

Q: You’ve been candid about how grueling the campaign has been on your family financially and emotionally. Did you underestimate the impact?

A: It was a huge challenge. It was hard. There was one stretch where I didn’t see my 3-year-old daughter Emme for three weeks and that stinks. But that wasn’t the principle driver in my decision.

Q: You have repeatedly said no one should be anointed as the GOP nominee and you accused Scott McInnis of trying to be “The Annointed One.” So now you’re gone, the GOP has made Tancredo happy enough for him to back off, you’ve had your GOP agenda rally and McInnis supporters are urging the last candidate standing, Dan Maes, to drop out for GOP unity’s sake. If that’s not anointment, what is?

A: Dan has every right to stay in the race. I made my decision based on my own volition.

Q: Ritter’s new oil and gas regulations are under fire from Republicans. When the governor’s office sent out a news release with the headline “Gov. Ritter bids farewell to head of state mining agency,” you forwarded it to your friends with the note “Governor bids farewell to mining agency head, and to mining, too.” People got a kick out of it. Is Scott that funny?

A: Scott is quick witted. He’s got a great sense of humor. I think you have to if you’re going to be in politics.

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